Following a weak start, cotton prices managed to eke out some gains in the late morning until speculative selling kicked in and knocked prices down again, participants said.

``There's was no follow through at all from Friday. Today's rise was due to some short covering, but the market was overdone last week,'' a trader said. ``Prices moved within a limited range today.''

On Friday, cotton prices settled markedly higher as fund buying and short covering triggered buy stops.

Traders also cited active roll-over trading out of May and into July as Monday was the first notice day for delivery for the May contract.

Market participants said that 89 notices were issued on Monday for delivery.

``It's an average figure, it's what people expected,'' a trader said.

While most market participants expectprices to continue their downward correction on Tuesday and most likely throughout the week - due to the first notice day - one trader said he projects the July contract to leap up to 62 cents per pound once the May contract comes off as a major trade house was targeting the July contract at that level.